Pokémon: The Golden Apocalypse
by Reogan
Summary: Kanto is not as it once was. Pokémon have lost both their intelligence and their loyalties. The remaining humans cower in their cities, and only the Called may venture safely into the wild. Updated erratically.
1. Prologue

Please pardon the small chapters. I seem to work best in extraordinarily small bits.

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Red ran through the dense forest, branches ripping at his clothes and snaring his feet. The vines that hung down from the canopy were covered in vicious thorns, but he ran straight through them, ignoring the searing streaks of crimson they left on his exposed face and arms. Behind him, a roar bellowed through the trees, causing some branches to fall, such was its ferocity. He tripped on one of these and before he could rise, the skies darkened. A reptilian monstrosity flew through the air above, spewing smoke from its nostrils and fire gleaming on its tail. As it flew past, a torrent of water erupted from the river to Red's left, and the dragon fell from the skies, somewhere to his right. The Blastoise turned in Red's direction, where the Charizard had fallen. Cursing, Red jumped up, and tried to escape the spot where soon, no doubt, two behemoths would battle. He had barely started, when both creatures fled from some creature more terrible than either of them. Though hidden by the forest, its advance was marked by the tremors that shook the ground and the crashing of distant trees. Red ran for but a moment, before reaching a clearing at the end of the forested valley. His heart sank, and his thoughts dulled as he slowly realized there was no escape; instead of a steady rise to the level of the surrounding land, there was a steep cliff, precluding any progress. Red turned, intending to run past his pursuer, when the Venusaur entered the clearing. The titanic beast stood twenty meters high, and a vine thicker than a large sapling snaked from the bulb on it's back. Just as it was about to grab Red, the sun reached an angle that cause light to suffuse the scene. The vine retracted as the bulb on the giants back opened. A glow began to emanate from the flower, which grew unbearably bright and then leapt from bulb. The beam howled towards Red, heat rolling off it in waves and-

Red awoke screaming. Realizing it was just a dream, he laid back down. He was almost asleep when an errant thought strolled into his consciousness. He was sixteen today. It was the day of the Calling.


	2. Chapter One

The Lab sat on the crest of a hill, glinting in the sunlight. It was a relic from times long past, when humans ruled and pokémon were domesticated and small. It consisted of two parts; the first a massive, multistory building which connected to the second, an even larger, glass-enclosed dome which held a miniature forest, a small pond, and a grassy field. Most of the laboratories were now closed down, though a few were kept open for use as classrooms, storage rooms, and one still served scientific function. The Dome, on the other hand, was in constant use, for magikarp were harvested in the pond for food, and those pokémon that were trained from birth to serve humankind lived within until Called into service. However, the number of those pokémon was prone to rapid fluctuation as they depended solely on eggs harvested from the wild. No breeding pairs had ever been established, except among the magikarp which were useless in all regards except as food. The complex was kept safe by a constant vigil of the Seven. The Seven each held watch with the pokémon they had tamed for a full day and night, rested upon being relieved, then struck off into the world until the next week.

It was to the Lab that Red ran, struggling to put on his jacket. He was late, and the Ceremony of Calling was to have taken place that morning. The hill upon which the Lab sat was so tall and steep, Red was forced to walk it. At reaching the peak, he stopped, awed. Though he had been here before, the sight was so powerful that it took his breath. He saw a figure on the roof, and knew it instantly to be one of the Seven. He couldn't see which it was, as the figure was silhouetted by the rising sun, and the Robes of the Guardian prevented him from determining gender. He stared for a while, somewhat dazzled by the power of the sight, and then remembered the urgency of his situation.

He sprinted in through the doorway. Once, the portal had been filled with great sliding glass doors, but since the Fall they stopped working and were removed with the few pokémon that remained under human control at that time. Now it remained open always, increasing the need for a constant watch. Red hurried down a long hall and entered a room that was used only once a year. To his great dismay it was empty. He was about to leave when a soft voice spoke.

"You're late."

The voice came from a dark corner of the room. Red could just make out a chair which swiveled around as he watched. A large figure rose from it and stepped into the light. It was Oak. Once an esteemed professor, he now led the small community. The muscle-bound man stood over two meters in height, and had a long scar from his jaw to above his left eye socket. The eye that once was housed there had been lost when Oak fought off a rhyhorn alone. He was lucky he lost only his eye. The man never wore a patch, though, and kept the socket empty. Red immediately began stammering an apology, but trailed of when Oak raised a hand. It was missing its ring finger, though Red didn't know the tale behind that.

Oak walked to the far side of the room. He opened a door, and entered, with Red trailing behind. He led Red to the back of a dim room, where a row of cages awaited.

"One remains. Take it, use it, and preserve the fragile peace we know."Oak took a cage in one hand, and gave it to Red, who staggered from the weight of it. "Go." Oak commanded.

Red obeyed, and when he reached the hall he sprinted out. Upon reaching the entrance he reconsidered his destination, and turned for the Dome. Once within, he set the cage on a lone rock on the field, near both the pond and the forest. He reached for the cage, and opened the door, knowing as he did so that it marked the end - the death - of his childhood. The cage opened and his breath caught in his throat.


	3. Chapter Two

**As you may have realized by now, the chapters will tend to be very short. As of now, fifteen parts are written, and today's is one of the shortest. Chapter one is about as long as they can get. To make up for the size, I'll try to update more than weekly. I guarantee no more than once a week though. Also, how do you like the way I divided the paragraphs this week? Too much?  
**

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Red stepped back from the cage and watched intently. For what felt like an eternity nothing happened. He took a tentative step forward.

Nothing happened.

He poked the cage with his shoe. Again, there was no sign of life.

He bent down to look in the cage. He saw nothing in the darkness.

He was debating whether he should reach into it or attempt to dump out its contents when he heard a moist slapping noise from within. He leapt to his feet and moved back. The sound came again.

Seconds passed.

It came once more. Red could only imagine what horror lurked within, slowly moving forward on a thousand tentacled feet, moving them with the deliberate slowness of a predator that none can hide from, each sucker being pulled from the wall before reattaching inches ahead.

The noise came again, closer to the entrance. This time it was less distorted by the cage. It sounded less like a tentacle and more like wet sponge dropping to the ground. Red waited a little longer, and then a sad little round creature hopped into the light.

It was small. Far smaller than most pokémon Red had ever seen, save newly hatched magikarp and perhaps some caterpie. It was a slimy blue, similar to that of a blue algae he had once seen when one of the wells was contaminated. Its nose was the pink of pecha berries, and it was below two large eyes that together filled most of the sphere. Its stomach was translucent, and Red could see the spiraling intestinal tract within.

What made the beast so miserable - what made Red despair - were its limbs. It had no arms, and its legs were small and weak. The thing could barely support its own weight, and seemed to have difficulty walking. It had a tail, much like a tadpole's, that seemed to do nothing but trip the creature as it waddled around Red cheerfully.

He looked back at the shining Lab, with its glorious Guardian perched above, and wondered how he could ever hope to achieve anything with this_, _this, _abomination_ at his feet.

Blissfully ignorant, the pokémon tripped over Red's foot and, looking up at him in apparent surprise, gurgled happily.

"Poliwag!"


	4. Chapter Three

**Ooh, update! This March, I'm taking a forced march approach to writing. I'm going to try to put up a new chapter every day. **

**I'm still playing with the paragraphs. Feedback is appreciated.**

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Poliwag.

It seemed to fit. What better name for such a useless species? The thing gurgled as it tried vainly to right itself. Red prodded it with his foot. It stopped moving for a second, and its massive eyes turned to Red.

"Wag?"

When it didn't get a response, it resumed squirming. Red took pity on the creature, and wedged his foot between its head and the ground. He lifted the creature to its feet, at which point it walked forward, towards the pond, and tripped over its own feet. This time, however, it landed on its stomach. Its tail wagged in the air like a flag. Now, though, its feet could reach the ground, barely, and it pushed with them to slither towards the water. As it neared the pond, two figures strolled out from the forest.

The first was a boy, Red's age, with blue-green eyes and brown hair. He wore a necklace with a small disc-shaped pendant. He stood about as tall as Red, but had a haughty way of holding himself that made him seem taller. In his mouth was a slowpoke tail, which he chewed thoughtfully. A grimace spread across Red's face as he viewed his childhood rival, Oak's grandson.

"Green." he said curtly.

Green turned, and a sneer distorted his normally handsome features as he saw Red. "You finally made it. I thought that you lost your way here and had been eaten by an arbok. I see I was mistaken. Pity." He noticed the movement of the poliwag and looked at it incredulously for a second. "Is _that_ you're pokémon? I've seen diglett larger than that thing. I didn't know poliwag came that tiny. What do you even call it?"

Red was at a loss for a moment, and quickly surveyed the slithering creature. "I, uh, I call it - him - erm, Nyoromo."

Green laughed. "Well your poliwag, - Nyoromo, was it? - couldn't survive a minute against Hitokage here." He gestured at the pokémon who walked by his side. The bipedal lizard snarled.

The burnt orange creature stood at least two feet tall. It had claws on both its hands and feet. Those on its feet were longer, but dull, whereas those on its hands were viciously curved, and were stained with red as if it had just been fighting, which, Red realized, it probably had. It had unintelligent black eyes, and its slavering maw was open to reveal the teeth of a carnivore. What was, perhaps, its most startling feature was its tail, which was half as long as the creature was tall. It was raised off the ground, and on the end bloomed a deep red flame.

Green saw Red's interest in his pokémon. "You like him? Gramps caught him especially for me. Said that he'd be the strongest in this year's calling. Allow me to demonstrate. Hitokage, scratch."

Before Red knew what was happening, the reptile charged towards his poliwag screeching a blood curdling "Charmander!" Nyoromo just reached the water's edge when it reached him. It clawed the helpless amphibian, which was tossed to the center of the lake by the force of the blow. It hit the surface, bounced, and landed again a bit farther. It floated face down on the surface a moment before sinking, leaving a small floating pool of white blood.

Red watched for a minute, two, and Nyoromo failed to surface. He barely saw Green leave with his charmander, nor heard him call "Smell you later!"

A lone magikarp jumped to catch an insect, and landed with a splash.

Above, a spearow called.


	5. Chapter Four

**No one has confronted me about it yet, but I _do _realize that I named the 'rival' Green instead of Blue. It's an accurate translation of the Japanese.

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**

Two sets of eyes, one much smaller than the other, watched from a nearby tree branch.

"Now _that_ wasn't very fair" whispered the girl to her pokémon. "Anyone could tell that poliwag is much too young for battle."

The creature on her shoulder pushed its snout through her hair and began to search for food. A smile appeared on the girls face. Even though she only had her pokémon for a few hours now, she already found herself quite attached to the thing. Her happiness faded quickly, though, as she watched the boy advance to the water's edge and stare into the depths.

_How could anyone be so cruel?_ she wondered. _No, not cruel. Just... cold. _She thought of his opponent. He hadn't seemed to enjoy causing pain. He just seemed to want - to need - to win. Even if he was the only one playing.

She suddenly felt a shock of pain, as if her earlobe had been stabbed with a pin, and nearly slapped the creature from her shoulder. Remembering herself, she softly chided the pokémon and took a bluk berry from her pouch. She carefully removed a single drupelet, which she held up to her shoulder. The animal sniffed it tentatively, and then snatched it from her, and set to the task of eating it. Thus satisfied that her ear was no longer in mortal peril, she looked back towards the boy.

He was on his knees now, sullenly staring into the water. A magikarp's head pierced the surface of the water, and it looked at him. It waited for a second, mouth gaping dumbly, and then swam away, splashing some water at him as it did so. He never moved.

Red shivered, the water leeching heat from his body, though the weather was still well above freezing. The loss of the poliwag - of _his _poliwag - cut like a knife. It wasn't that he had liked the creature. Its existence made him despair of ever achieving anything, of even surviving as a Called. Nevertheless, now that it was gone he had nothing. No creature to help him protect Pallet. No pokémon to keep him alive as he ventured into the forests.

No bumbling, happy Nyoromo to provide companionship.

He was so preoccupied by his thoughts that he didn't see the first bubble break the surface of the water and float of into the sky. Nor did he see the second. When three broke the water at once, though, he couldn't help but take notice. More and more bubbles rose, and a small section of the lake seemed to boil.

Then, all at once, the bubbles stopped.

A moment passed, and a blue sphere leapt from the water. Red watched incredulously as it dove through the water again. It reappeared a moment later, and in seconds it stood before Red.

"Poli!" it gurgled, a bubble still clinging to its face.

The girl was bemused. _I'll need to remember this. _She placed her pokémon in her satchel, and swung into the woods. Preoccupied with embracing his poliwag, the boy didn't hear a thing.

**

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I discovered the word _drupelet_ when writing this chapter. Let's work together to bring it into common usage, hm?**


	6. Chapter Five

**I think I should have put more line breaks into this. It looks really short. Of course, it is really short, but that doesn't mean it should look it. Meh, I tried.  


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**

Pallet Town, it seemed, was never safe.

To the north of the town were the Meadows, the remnants of a Route between Pallet and Viridian. The Meadows were used both as a training area for the Called and their pokémon, and as a meeting place for the town. Townsfolk would often visit when their daily duties were finished, to view the wildflowers and watch the battles.

To the east and the west of the Meadows was the sea. Originally, trees grew in thick, twisted woods around both the Meadows and the town, but they had been cleared for lumber and safety. Other than a few lone trees about the old Route and the small forest in the Dome, one had to venture north of the Meadows to find a forest.

Those that did, though, were either Called or mad.

In the time since the Upheaval, Viridian Forest had grown dark and twisted, and had exceeded its bounds, swallowing the city that was its namesake, and creeping ever closer to Pallet. Rumors claimed the forest lived, and that its malevolent will was focused on devouring the town. Yet it was from this very forest that Pallet derived its sustenance. Within were the herbs used to make medicines to heal both man and pokémon. Within were the nests that eggs containing the pokémon of future Called were pillaged from. Within were the pokémon that provided meat for the people. In its heart was the Fallen Viridian, and from it had come Viridian's few survivors of the Upheaval.

Despite its bloody past and dark present, the Forest was the first step in the journeys of the Called. Those recently given their pokémon were free to do as they saw fit, so long as they did nothing to hurt the town. However, after some time - a period that varied according to talent and the number of Called - they generally were given tasks that directly helped the community. Those who distinguished themselves were often put in charge of important tasks, or worked for Oak in the far reaches of Kanto. Those who lacked ability remained at low rank, and rarely survived.

Thus, it was to Viridian Forest that Red ventured the next day, Nyoromo nestled in his bag. He stood in the shadows of the trees, gathered his courage, and stepped into the woods. To any observer, it was as if the darkness swallowed him. To Red, it was the death of his youth, and the beginning of his journey.


	7. Chapter Six

**After a page of exposition, the story can start again. Welcome to Viridian Forest.

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**

All the sounds from the Meadows died as Red walked forward on the path.

Despite the fact that it was a bright day, the forest possessed only the hellish half-light of dusk. A crack sounded out, and Red's his arms were halfway up to shield his face before he realized he had simply stepped upon a twig. He chuckled nervously under his breath and, remembering his pokémon, took Nyoromo from his bag.

He studied the creature a moment, surprised again at its diminutive proportions. He could support its weight easily in one hand, and it was much smaller than his head. He sighed, and set it on the ground to walk beside him. It began to waddle after him at a painstakingly slow pace, one that could mean death in the Forest.

Red sighed. He didn't want to carry the pokémon, so he tried to set it on his shoulder. Nyoromo gurgled in joy at his ascension for but a moment before it pitched backwards into Red's disappointed, but waiting hand. He was nearly resigned to holding it with his hand when one last hope struck him. He lifted Nyoromo and placed him upon his head.

It was cold. It was unpleasant. But the pokémon wrapped his tail around the back of Red's head, and managed to stay balanced.

So it was with an oozing cold blob upon his head that Red ventured along the path. The twilight was oppressive, and it seemed to Red that it pulled the breath from his body. He found himself panting, though it took little effort to walk on the path. As he walked, the path began to die. Within ten minutes, it was so thin and bramble-strewn that he could barely see it. Within his first half hour in the forest, it was gone. He frequently checked his compass to ensure he knew the way back.

His compass was itself an interesting object. It was shaped like half a sphere, with the glass on the flat surface. Beneath it was a needle that pointed north, and below it was a matrix of high technology. None of it functioned, but Red always enjoyed looking at the shards of times long passed. He had once heard that the compasses, his white hemisphere included, were once a key part of the taming and training of pokémon. Now, though, the system had crumbled, and the thousands that had once been stored became useless. The shells were cannibalized to make something that could help.

He was so distracted he didn't hear the rustling in the nearby bush.


	8. Chapter Seven

**Short chapter, but one of my favorites so far.**

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Red turned the compass a minute amount, and then looked in the direction it pointed. He memorized the farthest visible tree in that direction, intending to use it as a reference point as he continued north. He checked the compass one last time, and as he pocketed it he noticed something was wrong.

Nyoromo's tail, which had been flickering irritatingly at the edges of his vision, was gone. He felt the top of his head. Though his hair was still moist, the pokémon was gone.

Red froze. The forest was a dangerous place for the Called. Without a pokémon, he was helpless. Viridian did not give second chances. He looked around, hoping the little thing hadn't gotten too far. He hadn't even noticed the absence of its weight.

"Poli!" rang a plaintive cry from just a few yards back.

Red tried to move quickly but stealthily, as he wanted to be able to surprise whatever held Nyoromo.

"Poliwag!" cried the pokémon again. Red moved behind a tree that he hoped would obscure him from the vision of anything near his poliwag. He slowly leaned sideways to allow his head around the tree.

Nyoromo was bound to a tree by a patch of white thread, nearly covering its entire body. Red could see the webbing move slightly as the creature struggled against it, but it showed no signs of giving way. At the base of the tree was a great larva crawling towards the tree, undulating like a worm near its tail, but crawling on four barbed legs nearer its head. It was three or four feet long, and its tail was weighted with a heavy club-like appendage. It had two large, black eyes that too up most of its head. Between them, a large, two-pronged antenna extended half a foot more, and it waved slightly as the pokémon moved. A small cylinder extended from its face, and from it a wisp of thread hung.

Red moved back behind the tree and slowly opened his bag, struggling not to make a sound. He knew that, despite the fear he felt, he faced only a caterpie, and he should be able to distract it for a short time. He found the item he was looking for and took a deep breath.

Holding it, he stepped out from behind the tree just in time to see the caterpie tear a strip of flesh from Nyoromo's head.


	9. Chapter Eight

**This was a great chapter to write. I hope reading it is just as fun.

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**

"No!"

It took Red a second to realize the cry had issued from his own mouth. The caterpie turned, and Red saw himself in the black pools of its eyes. It stared for a second, unmoving but for it's mouth, where two small mandibles worked the meat into its mouth.

Red watched it in horrified fascination. The cylindrical extension was open, revealing a tooth-lined maw. As the caterpie consumed its meal, the cylinder closed, hiding both the teeth and the mandibles. The caterpie then turned back towards the tree.

"Wag!" cried Nyoromo, jolting Red out of his shock. He raised his hand and threw a small sphere at the bug. It hit the creature's head, and broke open. Purple smog began to pour out of it, and the caterpie stopped moving. The smoke obscured the creature, but Red could still see when it began to thrash about. It screeched, and began to dart back and forth, spewing thread from its mouth.

A gobbet of thread hit Red in the face with the force of strong punch, making him drop his bag. He fell back against the tree, clawing at his eyes. The threads completely obscured his vision, and pulled painfully at his face and hair as he attacked it.

The creature screeched again, and Red heard motion near him. The scream dropped in pitch and faded as the caterpie ran into the forest.

Red gave up on his eyes for the moment, and crawled forward, feeling for his bag. It was only when Nyoromo gave a pitiful little whimper from behind him that Red realized he had been crawling in the wrong direction. He turned, knowing that without his poliwag's aid, he would have crawled of alone and fallen prey to the forest.

He found the sphere he had thrown, now cracked, and felt a rush of appreciation for Oak. In the weeks after the Upheaval, before the Seven came to Pallet, he had developed a new recipe for repels that didn't require technology. Instead of a spray, it was now stored in prepared apricorns. Much improved in the years since that dark time, every one of the Called was given a single repel just in case such a disaster befell them. Red doubted one had ever been used on a caterpie.

His bag was lying nearby. Feeling inside, he found the small knife he had been given by his mother the night before the Calling. He took it and carefully began to slice the threads on his face. It took him a little time, but he eventually had divided it into strips that peeled away easily. He cut himself only once, a shallow slash of red across his left eyelid. It would heal quickly, without a scar.

He looked around and found Nyoromo. The pokémon was limp against the tree, barely conscious. White blood poured from its wound, and ran off it down the tree. Red felt a surge of pity for the creature. He rushed over and cut it free.

Red held Nyoromo against him as he took a small bottle from his bag. He poured a liquid from it directly onto the wound, and the pokémon went rigid before writhing about, crying loudly. Red winced, but grimly held the squirming creature until it finally collapsed, exhausted. Red peeled the rest of the threads off, and then placed some on the wound to facilitate healing. Despite the dangers inherent in retrieving it, caterpie thread had amazing restorative capabilities.

Looking up from his task, Red saw the dim forest was growing darker. The night was approaching, with dangers of its own.

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**Yes, Oak has access to apricorns. Pretend it's canon.**


	10. Chapter Nine

**You might be interested in knowing that the muse is gone. I have over a week's worth of material left, and by the time I use that I hope to have written more. However, your daily updates may end sooner than I'd like.

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**

Carrying his pokémon, Red crashed through the underbrush, paying no heed to his direction.

He hadn't dared to stay where the caterpie could still return, and despite Nyoromo's condition he couldn't afford to move slowly with night upon them. He had begun to run with the intention of heading only a mile or so from his original position, but as he ran imagined terrors lunged from the forest about him, and he descended into a mindless panic. All he knew was he needed to get away. Away from the caterpie, away from the forest, away from the very night.

He ran like this for an hour, until he tripped over a tree root. He hit the ground painfully, and Nyoromo flew from his grip. Coming to his senses, Red tried to take a deep breath, but it caught in his throat. For a long moment, he couldn't breathe at all and his lungs screamed for air. Darkness crept in at the corners of his vision. Suddenly, the breath exploded from his lungs in a gust, and he inhaled deep draughts of the cool night air. The panic threatened to take him again as he couldn't seem to do anything but breathe, such was his need for air.

Gradually, his gasping lessened. He was able to stand after a few minutes, though he fell against a tree as soon as he did. His legs quivered under his weight, and when he thought himself strong enough to take a step, he fell forward and vomited.

Once his stomach was empty, he continued to retch painfully. Once he was reasonably certain that he wasn't going to die, he rolled over and just laid on the ground. His legs ached and quivered, and Red might not have moved from that spot until morning had he not heard a plaintive "Wag." from somewhere nearby.

Red sat bolt upright. Nyoromo! The injured pokémon had been thrown aside in the fall. Red clambered to his feet, too worried to feel the fiery pain. He softly called out, "Nyoromo?" When no response came, he called louder, then louder still.

"Poli." The tremulous voice was nearly snatched by the faint breeze. Red made his way to where it came from. As he walked, the breeze grew. It only occurred to him how odd wind was in such a thick forest when he stepped past the treeline onto the edge of a cliff. The wind gusted past him, pulling at his clothes.

Nyoromo was nowhere to be seen.

"Poli. Wag." Red's heart sank when he realized the sound came from past the cliff. He imagined his pokémon's broken body lying at the bottom of the drop. Red wasn't sure he could retrieve the poliwag, much less nurse it back to health. Not trusting his legs, he crawled to the brink and looked down.

Five feet below, on a small, mossy outcropping, was Nyoromo. Fifty feet below the pokémon was a ruin.

They had found the Fallen Viridian.


	11. Chapter Ten

Red lowered himself down to Nyoromo. He picked up the pokémon, who responded with a happy "Wag!" Red assumed this meant it wasn't bleeding out from an unseen wound. He sat on the ledge for a minute, holding Nyoromo and looking out over the ruins. Some of the buildings seemed mostly intact. He decided to use one for a shelter.

He set down Nyoromo, and crawled carefully to the brink of his platform. He saw another protrusion about a yard downwards. Still grasping his pokémon, he sat on the edge of his ledge and let himself fall down to the next. The impact sent a shock through his legs, and he crumpled. Without terror fueling him, the exhaustion was overpowering. His entire body erupted in white-hot pain. Red's eyes rolled back in his head, and he collapsed.

Nyoromo prodded Red with a foot. When that failed to elicit a response, the little pokémon waddled over to Red's head. With a tired sigh, it sat back. It wrapped its tail around itself, and was slumbering in minutes. As it breathed, a single bubble formed and floated off from it. The bubble floated off towards the moon, leaving the companions alone above the ruined city.

~~~

Green whittled off a few final pieces of bark, and held the stick up against the sky. The light of the moon illuminated the fine point. He began to get up, but a glint caught his eye. Looking back to the stars, he saw a faint orb drift across the sky. The moon seemed to swell as the sphere hovered over it. Green was transfixed until the bubble popped, raining a moist spray down. Green wiped his face, and returned to his work.

He took his stick, and set it in the ground, point facing out. With this, his ring was completed, and he had a safe place to sleep.

"Hitokage!" Green called sharply. A faint glow appeared in the forest, and grew. Soon, the charmander entered the clearing, claws digging grooves through the fallen leaves. Green saw at once it carried nothing, and sighed. He had seen signs of a fight nearby, and hoped he might find some supplies dropped by a fleeing - or eaten - Called. Suddenly angry, he grabbed the used Repel he had found on the ground, and threw it into the forest. He hadn't found anything that day, and had hoped to make up lost time with extra supplies.

He removed a stake and stepped into the ring. He snapped his fingers, and Hitokage followed him in. He repaired the hole, and took a plant from his pack. He grabbed his pokémon's tail, and used its flame to light the stem as he stripped off the leaves. He sat against his pack, raised the smoldering vegetation to his mouth, and inhaled deeply. He looked at the stars, and a smile played at the corners of his mouth. He was really here, out to become the very best.

He blew out a line of smoke, which rose until a stray breeze caught it and carried it away.

~~~

The pokémon's nose twitched as a burning smell reached it, but it didn't swerve from its path. It ran up the side of a tree, and scampered to the top. It hurried along a branch, and hopped down onto an outstretched arm of the next tree. It continued across the treetops for a short while, until it reached a large nest. It crawled in through a tiny hole in the side, and entered into a small den in which a human rested.. It dropped something it carried in its mouth, and curled up next to the human.

The girl opened her eyes groggily. She saw the pokémon and was relieved that it made it back safely. The smile inverted itself, though, when she saw what it had brought. Inches from her face was a small mass of thread, staining the floor with white blood. She worried about the last of the Called, and his poor pokémon.

Mercifully, she was tired enough that the thoughts didn't trouble her long before she fall asleep.

~~~

Green tossed the butt of the stem aside, and lay on his back with his hands under his head. He wondered what his grandfather was doing. Probably still working. He remembered the long hours they had spent together, Oak staring through a microscope while Green prepared his next slide. Back then he had seen it as work, but now he was surprised to find he missed it. Most of his life had been spent at that man's side, but no more. 

_Never again_ thought Green sadly. _I'm Called. I have a duty to protect Pallet. I'm not a child anymore. Things will never be the same._

The boy drifted off in Hitokage's dim light, a single tear glistening on his cheek.


	12. First Interlude

**I should have had this up... earlier. I have an excuse for stopping the daily posting, at least. There were personal, family matters of the sort not needing to be discussed here. After that, though, I can't explain the missing month of posts in any way but by saying sorry. I'll try to stay consistent now. That is to say, I'll post the new chapter once a week. Sorry.

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We never stood a chance.

After the systems crashed, our fates were sealed. We didn't have a protector. Giovanni was gone without a trace, as was his wont, and we lacked powerful pokémon. We weren't ready for battle. We were mostly students and townsfolk. Only the students had pokémon. Fresh from Pallet, they had come to learn from us. They were about to start their grand journeys.

They never did.

After the crash, we weren't badly off at first. Someone had a pikachu that could power the pokémon center's PC. We maintained communications then, and people always traveled to us from Pallet and back. One brave student actually went to Celadon for a holiday. It was far, but he made it. He phoned in when he arrived. The store wasn't as grand as it had been, but he had still found a few items he liked. He had smiled then, and told us he'd be back in a few days.

That was the last time we saw him.

The Forest didn't wait. Like a creeping rot, it spread down from the north. It kept back from the city, but it grew. They sprouted between us and Pallet. These new trees met up with the Old Forest along our Celadon border. No one returned from Celadon. No one returned from Pallet. As the trees reached inwards to us, so did the pokémon.

People began to disappear.

That wasn't so bad. The horror came when we began to find them. Our friends - our family members - were found tied to trees by silky thread, bones picked clean of flesh. Often, the bones were cracked, many lying at the bottom of the tree, and the marrow was missing.

Sucked dry.

Like the body we found in the square when we got back from a burial. She was a little girl, maybe nine. She had complained of a stomach ache, so her mother had let her stay home on the provision that she wouldn't open any doors or windows. Judging by the marks in the dirt, the girl had feigned illness to draw rather than see another rushed funeral.

Her death must have been agonizing.

The body was no more than a husk, sucked dry. Since the organs were gone and the only wounds were two small holes, a venom must have been injected to liquefy her innards. She had writhed. Writhed enough to make a small depression in the ground. Her voice must have been stopped by the venom too. But she still spoke to us. Even in death, she spoke. We listened to her silent, withered body there. She told us to go. No more, she said, no more.

We went.

Nightfall found Viridian empty, but for a few stalwart old men who refused to leave. We went south. Alone. Just a band of terrified townsfolk and untested students with small pokémon against the horrors of the Forest.


	13. Chapter Eleven

**I know I put this chapter up last week, but it isn't there now, so here y'go. I'll put something up in the middle of the week to make up for it.  


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Red opened his eyes, felt a spear of pain skewer his mind, and closed them again. It was bright. The sun was high in the sky, and nothing blocked the rays from Red's exposed position. He began the long task of opening his eyes slowly, trying to keep the stabbing light from penetrating into his aching head. He managed to rise to his hands and knees, but a wave of dizziness hit him. Something wasn't right, but he couldn't figure out what. His head ached too much to think, and his legs protested every movement. His skin had begun to burn dully, and the sun still beat relentlessly down. He lifted his head slightly, wincing at the pain, and saw Nyoromo sitting under a small protrusion from the rock face.

The pokémon was still asleep. It struck Red how small it looked. The poor thing seemed to have wilted overnight. Where bubbles had occasionally issued from its mouth, there was now only a translucent filmy substance. A thought entered Red's sluggish brain. He barely caught a wisp of it before it evaporated in the heat. Why was it so hot? He felt like he would simply cease to be if the heat continued.

_Water_.

The thought materialized again. He realized his throat was parched, and though hot, his skin was without sweat. He was suffering from dehydration, and his poliwag must be as well.

He crawled to the edge of his platform, gritting his teeth against the pain, and saw that a small pond was nearby, at the old city's entrance, a few hundred yards away. He picked up Nyoromo, who shifted slightly but didn't wake, and placed him in his pack. Red then began to climb down.

Looking back, he could never remember how he made it. Only one instance stood out in his mind. He could clearly recall clinging to a small handhold with a single hand, swinging like a pendulum, terrified.

Somehow, though, he had made it, and as he crawled to the edge of the water to drink, he decided he didn't want to know how he did it. Nyoromo rolled out of the unzipped pack as Red drank, still asleep, and landed at the ponds edge. The water revived him enough to take a little waddle forward and sink to the bottom, in its element once more.

Red, having taken in more water than was probably wise, sat back to wait for Nyoromo. The water was clear, and he could see through it well enough to make out the pokémon's round form darting about at the bottom. Content that he wouldn't be eaten by anything, Red turned to survey the city.

The buildings still stood, and only the creeping vines on their sides and chipped paint hinted at their abandonment. Between the buildings told more of the tale, though. The once-paved streets were cracked and weeds grew there. A fair bit away, Red could just make out a fountain, no longer running, that seemed to have sprouted a sapling. It was a calm place, not at all like the nest of death he had imagined the Fallen Viridian as. But that was its danger, he supposed. Nowhere in the forest was safe, no matter how tranquil.

Having taken a few steps towards the ruins, he turned to return to the water, and almost collided with an old man standing there.


	14. Chapter Twelve

**Um... I'll get to that extra update _this _week. Heh...  


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Red didn't have a chance to speak before he an oaken staff slammed into his face from the left.

"Whaddya think yer doin' in mah city, yeh lil whippersnapper?" The man took Red's neck n his feeble hands and begun to shake him about. "In mah day we had laws about trespassin' an' whatnah. Nah tha' i' stopped any of yeh trainers from waltzin' across mah property. Jus' cause I's got the only way t' Pewter don' mean I's willin' to let yeh go rippin' up mah lawn. An' now yeh' think jus' cause everyone's up an' left means yeh' can have mah city?"

"I just-" Red's words were silenced by another blow from the staff. The man took Red by the ear and began to drag him into the city. Red struggled, but when he broke free, the man tripped him with his staff, and beat him. When he was satisfied, he began to drag Red once more.

"No respect. Tha's the problem wit' yeh youngins. Yeh got no respect fer yer elders. Now back in mah day, we obeyed our elders, an' we was thrashed iffin we disobeyed. But we din't! We din't disobey, because we had respect!" Red saw a faint blue sphere waddling after them. He dared not call out to his pokémon, though, as the man seemed quite capable of bludgeoning the poor thing to death.

Still grumbling, the man pulled Red into a small house on the north side of the city. Red was pushed into a chair, while the man fumbled about a small kitchen.

"Now yeh jus' wait there while I gets mah coffee, an' then we'll see about gettin' yeh yer thrashin'. He was too absorbed in his cooking to notice the poliwag tumble through the still-open door. It looked about confusedly for a minute, and then began to head to Red's captor.

"Nyoromo!" Red hissed. The man turned, holding a mug of coffee, and glaring at Red. He failed to see the pokémon at his feet.

"Noromaro? Is tha' sum kind of newfangled expletive yeh kids are sayin' now? Back in mah day, we respected our elders. It was all yessir and no sir. None of this noonamero stuff yeh kids are sayin'. Now yeh wait righ' here while I gets mah belt. Yeh've got a beatin' comin'." The man fumbled to the door, and locked it. He placed the key in his breast pocket, and trudged into a back room. The second he was out of sight, Red leapt out of his chair and grabbed his pokémon.

Nyoromo was in surprisingly good shape. He had recovered most of the weight lost from dehydration already, and his wound, uncovered at this point since the threads were water-soluble, was nearly gone. Red marveled for a second, before thinking to try the door.

It was locked. He knew he'd need to fight the man to escape, which worried him, but with Nyoromo on his side he might have a chance. Just as he began to walk to the back room, the man turned the corner, holding only a large book,his coffee cup, and a pipe between his teeth.


	15. Chapter Thirteen

**I am nothing if consistent. Not only is this update late, but I still owe you an extra. Meh. **

**More importantly, we are about to go through a number of extremely short chapters before suddenly encountering chapters of appreciable size (comparatively again).**

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"Oh! Hello." The man peered at red, furrowing his brow. "I didn't expect to have a visitor. Not many people come by after..." He trailed off.

"Sir?" Asked Red, cautiously.

"Hm? Oh! What was I saying? Ah, that's right. I don't really get guests around here. Not for a long time. Where are you from, my boy?"

"I'm from Pallet, and I-"

"Pallet? You've met an Oak then, yes?"

"Yes sir, but why-"  
"That's a man who you can trust. Samuel and I worked together for years. How is the old fellow?"

"He's well enough, but-"

"Good, good." The man lifted his glass and took a drink.

"Sir, I really don't understand why you-"

"I wrote this book with him, you know." He walked forward and set it on the table. The cover was worn and faded, and the letters were difficult for Red to make out. "The Compleat Encyclopaedia Pokémon. Samuel did most of it." He brushed the leather binding gently.

"Sir, this is all very interesting but-"

"So why are you in my house, my boy?" The man walked into his cooking alcove.

"I don't know. You brought me here."

"Did I? How odd. What would be the purpose? I love a good mystery." He began rummaging through his cupboard. "You must forgive me, I'm really not the same before I've had my coffee."

He pulled a glass bottle from the shelf and poured a liquid Red was certain wasn't water into his glass. He ladled coffee from the pot on the stove on top of it, and headed back to Red.

"I apologize for whatever I did. If I slept better and didn't wake with such a headache, I'd have been more gracious." He took a swig of his coffee, frowned, and walked to the kitchen to pour more into his cup from the glass bottle on the shelf. "You must forgive me, I don't really have anything to give you to eat. Living out here, I don't need to save a lot of food. Easier that way." He turned. His eyes fell on Nyoromo, still in Red's arms.

"Oh, you brought breakfast."


	16. Chapter Fourteen

**This chapter _is _minuscule. However, they will only get longer from here, and by Seventeen there will be appreciable growth. As always, thank you for reading, and I appreciate your feedback.  
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"What? Sir, he isn't for-"

"I have the perfect recipe in my cabinet; I'll just go grab that." The man walked off through the door, still talking. "It's been a while, but poliwag has always..."

Red watched him go, and when he heard the man's talking grow as distant as could be expected in the humble dwelling, he hurried to leave. His hand, slimy from his pokémon's flesh, slipped a few times before getting a good grip on the handle. He turned it, but it refused to move more than an inch. Red, remembering the key in the man's pocket, sighed, bracing himself for another brush with madness. He turned and stepped into the doorway to the back room of the house.

The old man was rummaging through papers on the ground. The papers appeared to have come from a cabinet that had fallen on its side and had gouges on every surface. But for the cabinet, the room was empty. Red stepped forward, into the room, and gasped.

In a closet the wall had concealed when he was in the doorway was a terrifying pokémon. It was as tall as a man, if not taller, and had two triangular eyes set on its dome-like head. Below the eyes was a sharp pointed thing Red thought might be a mouth. The body below that was segmented, and the sections seemed to overlap at parts. Halfway down its length were extended two arms with viciously curved claws. The entire thing was a dull yellow, from its round head to the point on which it rested, save its eyes, which were black and unfeeling. These awful things seemed fixated on the distracted man.

"Look out!" cried Red. The man turned, and saw Red. Following his gaze, his eyes slowly moved to the pokémon in the closet. A strange look came over his face.

For a second, nothing moved.


	17. Chapter Fifteen

**No more lies. I changed to description from 'Updated weekly!' to 'Updated erratically!'  
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The man began to convulse and wheeze. Red didn't know what to do. Not only was some sort of pokémon about to attack, but the man seemed to be having an attack. He glanced at the creature in the closet, then back at the man. Sudden sputters of noise burst irregularly from the old man's mouth. Red suddenly realized what was happening.

The man was laughing.

He made as if to speak, but the laughter precluded any conversation. Still wheezing, he walked right up to the beast, and tugged on one of its claws. Without a sound, the pokémon fell forward onto the ground.

"Haven't you ever seen a kakuna, boy?" This comment struck the man as hilarious, and he doubled over, guffawing.

Red looked at the thing's back, and saw that there was a hole near the center. The inside was dark, but enough light entered for Red to see the other side.

"It's hollow."

"Of course it's hollow, my boy. It had better be, considering I've slept in it for..." He trailed off, thoughtfully. "I suppose it's been over a decade now. To where have the days of youth flown?"

Red squatted by the shell, and examined it. "You sleep in this?"

"Safest bed I've ever had."

"Safest?" Red, looked up from the cocoon curiously. He had never thought safety was much of a concern when sleeping indoors.

"Of course! Beedrill molts are some of the hardest things in this forest. And this one," He gave it an appreciative kick, "Was certainly well hardened before it evolved."

"But why not use a bed?" Red stood now, looking the man in his sharp gray eyes.

"Well, ever since I- no. I ramble. How would you feel if we waited until we had some nice poliwag soup to talk?"

"No! I mean, sir, that Nyoromo - the poliwag - isn't for eating. He's my... helper."

"Poli!" Nyoromo wriggled in Red's grip at the mention of his name.

"Oh, why didn't you say so, boy?" The man began to push the papers back into the cabinet.

"I tried-"

"We shall have to catch breakfast then. You may assist me."

"I don't-"

"Well, let's be off. We have far too much to do, and your company, though pleasant, has simply wasted much of the time we had." The man took his staff from behind the door, and dragged a vainly protesting Red out of the house with him.


	18. Chapter Sixteen

**Last of the _really_ short chapters. For now, at least.  
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From the house, they traveled southeast through the dead city until they reached the edge of visible ruins. At this point, Red could just see where he originally entered Viridian to the south. Ahead of him was a dirt path that led slightly upwards, cutting a rift between two towering rock walls on either side. The path was wide, but from the moment he stepped between the cliffs, Red felt a faint claustrophobic anxiety rise within him. The walls reached so impossibly high, that it seemed any shift in the rock could send the entire structure down. Hearing Red breathing in shorter, shallower breaths, the old man smiled.

"You like the valley? It's an interesting phenomenon, sure, but it's nothing next to the true Tohjo Mountains. These are just the foothills." He gestured vaguely about with his staff, as if to express the enormity of the formation.

Ahead, a wall came into view. Though it was much shorter than those that surrounded the party, it was far too tall to climb, and Red wondered what the man intended to do. When they drew near, though, the man gave Red's sleeve a faint tug, and turned right towards the cliff. He walked straight to the obstacle and, without slowing, stepped right and disappeared from view.

Red stared for a moment.

The man's wrinkled face appeared in midair where it had vanished. "Are you coming?"

"I, uh..." At a loss for words, Red walked towards the head, and suddenly everything became clear. The man had not disappeared, he had simply stepped behind an outcropping from the main rock face that concealed a fissure just wide enough to pass through. Red stepped around, into the passage, and was surprised to see the man halfway up a trail at least fifty feet long. The ground was rocky and uneven, and Red had difficulty remaining upright. He climbed slowly, and the man was already over the brink before Red had moved more than a few yards.

When he finally reached the top, his panting paused as he gasped. In front of him was an idyllic glade, sheltered by the mountains, but exposed to the noonday sun high above. The ground was coated in moss and some short variety of grass, and a few fruit-laden trees grew around a large, sparkling pond. On a rock spur jutting into the lake sat the man, tying a line onto his staff.


	19. Chapter Seventeen

Red stepped forward, his foot sinking into the mossy ground. The glade was sheltered and the air was still, yet there was no hint of stagnation. Everything, from the sun's bright rays shining from above to the faint moisture in the air from the pond, felt pure. He walked on, leaving Nyoromo to waddle slowly after him. He approached the old man who, content with his fishing, didn't seem inclined to conversation. That suited Red well, and he sat nearby. He removed his shoes, and allowed his feet to dangle into the water, where a collection of magikarp swam stupidly in circles.

At the base of the rocky spur, Nyoromo dove into the water, and as the ripples reached Red, he laid back, happy. The man was certainly odd, and he had dragged Red here mostly against his will, but even so, the glade was the most peaceful place Red had seen. He could see why the man hadn't left Fallen Viridian. He began to doze lightly, as the fish nibbled at his toes, and the man sat with his staff-turned-rod.

Red awoke to the smell of roasted magikarp. He sat up, wincing at the unexpected pain from his previous exertions, and turned. Though he felt like he had only slept for a short time, it was already quite dark; however the height of the surrounding cliffs could have had something to do with that. On the shoreline, Nyoromo and the man were sitting by the glowing remains of a fire, over which a makeshift wooden structure held fish, still cooking. Obviously, they had been cooking for some time, as more magikarp was piled on a stone slab nearby, well browned. Even more fish sat on the man's wooden plate, though he paid it no mind and it fell onto the dirt as he cut Nyoromo's fish into pieces small enough for the diminutive creature. When the man saw his dirtied meal, he tossed it into what Red had thought to be a handful of large stones. The objects converged on the food, and Red could make out faint growling.

He rose and walked to the man, who waved towards him as he adjusted a cooking slab. Nyoromo looked up from his fish, which he had set upon with vigor, and bubbled happily as he saw his master. Red sat by him, in front of a second wooden plate, onto which the man was already placing some magikarp. He was handed a knife, but no other utensil. Red attempted to cut his food, but found it difficult without anything to hold it with. When he finally managed to carve off a piece and taste it, he was amazed at the taste. The purity of the glade seemed to have seeped into the fish too. It tasted as nothing Red had eaten before, yet he knew, somehow, that this was how all things should taste. He savored it, but even so it was gone far too soon.

"This is delicious!" he exclaimed as he struggled to cut away more. The man smiled at him.

"I'm glad to hear that. Samuel and I used to always come out here for lunch. We'd fish for hours, though it didn't take that long to catch a meal." He gestured at the tower of fish beside him. "I was the better fisherman, though Samuel cooked them. He was always better at that sort of thing; he loved science, and cooking was like it. He tried to teach me, but I somehow always manage to cook out most of the flavor."

"Buh thif ith delifouth!" protested Red, his mouth now full of fish once more.

"I may have gotten a little better over the years, but Samuel's cooking was a league of its own." The man stared at the coals for a minute, and absently tossed some food into the group of creatures. Red looked at them again.

What he had thought were grey rocks in the twilight were actually a collection of dull purple and blue creatures. The purple ones were larger, maybe two feet tall, and had jagged ears and spines, which blended well with the surrounding cliffs' rock. A short, sharp horn protruded from their foreheads, set above two large eyes, which glinted in the firelight. They squeaked quietly, and their rodentine teeth moved a little with every sound.

The blue creatures, which were slightly smaller, also had the spiky ears and backs, but these were less pronounced, as were their horns. They were rounder than their purple companions, but seemed to possess the same basic structure. Their only distinctive characteristic, other than color, were their four whiskers, two to a side.

Seeing Red's interest in the animals, the man spoke. "Are you fond of the nidoran? They never came when Samuel was around. They must like you. They gather whenever I fish here, and they manage to eat all my leftovers, no matter how many magikarp I catch." He fell silent for a moment, studying the pokémon.

Almost as if on cue, they stopped eating, and froze. Their large ears tilted upward and their sounds ceased. The man frowned, and his brow furrowed. A black shape appeared in the sky, and flew down at a terrifying pace. A screech rent the air, and the nidoran bolted, disappearing into the cliff face. Red scooped up Nyoromo and made to run, but the man grabbed his shirt collar with an iron grip. The bird reached them, and landed on the man's shoulder, squawking madly. Red recognized as a spearow, though he had never seen one interact with a human without violence. The man seemed to almost listen to the bird, and then spoke to Red gravely.

"Put out the fire. Quickly. We can't stay here." He looked at the sky, blue above their shadow. The light seemed ominous now.


	20. Chapter Eighteen

Red began to throw dirt on coals, while the old man scattered the remaining fish about the clearing. Just as the last coals had been covered, the man reached Red. He picked up the wooden grill he had roasted the magikarp on, and handed it to the spearow, which took it in its talons.

"Take this with you, if you can. If it's too much, leave it. Fly quickly." The bird hopped off the man's shoulder, and began to fly haphazardly away, weighed down by its burden.

"Sir, what exactly is happening?" asked Red.

Rather than speak, the man looked up. Red followed his gaze. The sky was empty, and had just a hint of the brilliant hues of evening. The only odd thing about it was the lack of birdsong in the air. Red tried to see what the man was looking at.

A moment passed.

Suddenly, a shadow appeared at the west end of the sky, and moved quickly forward to fill Red's view. Complete darkness fell over the clearing, and only the man's breathing told Red he was not alone. Two seconds passed in the shadow before the shadow gave way at the polar edges. Light trickled around some obstruction, and for another second, the clearing was faintly shown in a dusky haze. Then, the two lines of brightness met in the west, and quickly moved east revealing the light of day.

Red gasped as he realized a massive pokémon had just flown overhead, a pokémon so large that even its tail could block out most of the sun. He opened his mouth to ask what it had been, but was instead nearly pulled over as the man tugged him to the crevice they had entered from. Despite his age, the man moved quickly, with the crazed stride of a creature terrified.

Though younger, Red tired faster, as his exertions from the day before left him drained. As he ran, his mind raced. _What could that thing have been? Why are we running? Isn't it gone? Maybe if it finds us Nyoromo could- no. Not against that. Nyoromo couldn't- Where is Nyoromo?_

Red spent a terrified second trying to recall where his poliwag had been in the clearing before he realized he held it in his arms. In his shock, he hadn't even realized he had picked it up. His relief gave him enough renewed energy to keep pace with the man until the mouth of the first canyon was in sight, with the Fallen Viridian beyond it. There was no sign of danger, and safety was in sight. Instead of slowing though, the man only ran faster, his staff swinging dangerously in his right hand. Red couldn't ask why, as all his breath was spent trying to catch up. Without any visible danger, though, Red lost the will to continue, and began to slow once more.

A cacophony of squawks burst out above him. Red looked up to see the largest flock of bird pokémon fleeing from the direction the behemoth had gone. The cliff walls were so high that most were contained in the same canyon Red ran through, and they quickly overtook him and reached the opening. They scattered in all directions over Viridian, leaving an ominous silence that gave Red the motivation to sprint once more.

Then he heard it. A rumbling in the distance joined with faint squeaks and growls and roars to produce a quiet, but ever-louder background to his pounding heart. He glanced back, and a faint dust cloud was brewing near the rear of the valley, kicked up by a thousand score of scurrying feet. Red gave everything he had, and ran until he reached the man's house, just as the old man did as well. He stood, panting, as the man turned to him.

"Kakuna... shell." he managed to get out. "Only room... for... one. Go south." He paused to wheeze. He waved his arm as he caught his breath. "Go. Most... can't climb." He slipped inside as Red tried to process what the man meant. He heard the faint whisper of a bolt being drawn. A voice drifted out from inside. "Good luck."

Red didn't waste a moment. He hurried to the forested cliffs of the south, glancing to the foothills of the Tojo Mountains as he did so. The cloud was hurrying toward the opening, and reached it as Red passed the pond where he had entered Viridian. A herd of nidoran galloped out, accompanied by rattata and a screeching band of primates. These pokémon swung their bodies forward on their hands as much as they ran. Red recognized them from pictures he had seen in some of the few books in Pallet, but couldn't recall anything else about them in his panic. The beasts scattered as the birds had, and the forerunners of that arc headed straight towards the ruined city.

The wave broke on the first buildings as Red reached the cliffs.


End file.
